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Richt: Raley is catching on in senior year

Mario Raley wants to be a prime time player at wide receiver for Georgia, where he mostly has played when the lights weren't the brightest.

"I've had my share of garbage work or whatever," Raley said. "I'm healthy, I feel good and it's time for me to have fun and play like I played in high school and let whatever else happens happen."

Raley caught 100 passes for 1,505 yards and set a North Carolina record with 27 touchdowns in his senior season at Independence High School in Charlotte on a team that included Georgia quarterback Joe Cox and wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi.

At Georgia, Raley has been buried down the depth chart. He had only six catches for 78 yards last season, but he made a big third-down reception on the game-winning touchdown drive against Georgia Tech and a 32-yard catch in the Sugar Bowl.

Georgia coach Mark Richt said the 6-foot-1, 190-pound Raley has consistently caught the football this spring.

"Mario is definitely going to play, probably a lot if it keeps going the way that it's been," Richt said. "He knows what he's doing, and he's catching the ball well."

With Sean Bailey expected to miss the 2006 season because of a torn ACL and A.J. Bryant also sitting out spring practice, Raley is working as the No. 1 slot receiver and battling for a starting position outside, Richt said.

Massaquoi and Kenneth Harris are the starters.

"I see this spring as big for me," said Raley, who has 17 career catches. "It's the opportunity for me to step-up and lead. Me being a fifth-year senior, I feel like it's my turn."

Hard to judge quarterbacks

After the Bulldogs practiced in full pads for the first time this spring on Wednesday, Richt said the defense "is just tougher than the offense now."

It was hard to judge the quarterbacks, Richt said, because of poor pass protection.

"We did some blitz pickup, but I don't know if we picked up any blitzes," Richt said. "We should have called it sack drill."

Joe Tereshinski continued to get first-team snaps. It was freshman Matthew Stafford's turn to get first team-snaps, too, after sophomore Blake Barnes and redshirt freshman Joe Cox went the first two practices.

Stafford said the offense was put in tough situations that favor the defense early in the spring.

"I feel like I keep getting more comfortable with the offense and just the basic stuff that you think is so rudimentary," Stafford said.

Jarvis Jackson, newly moved to middle linebacker, stood out.

"He just seemed to be in perfect position, striking people on the rise and running through them," Richt said.

Jackson and Tony Taylor, now on the weakside, have flip-flopped spots.

"I think it's a better fit for both of those guys," Richt said.

Spring work important for Weston

With the departure of seniors Kedric Golston, Gerald Anderson and Darrius Swain, redshirt freshman Kade Weston and January enrollee Ricardo Crawford step into the mix at defensive tackle.

The 6-5, 310-pound Weston, a high-profile recruit from Red Bank, N.J., missed critical practice time last preseason because of a pulled hamstring. Then this winter, Weston missed about two weeks of mat drill conditioning again because of a sore hamstring.

Defensive line coach Rodney Garner would like to keeping him on the practice field and out of the training room.

"He's just such a big guy that it's a flexibility thing," Garner said. "He'll get the feeling where he thinks he feels good and he'll get off the maintenance program."

Weston is getting second-team work behind starters Ray Gant and Jeff Owens. Richt said Weston came clean on a blitz in Wednesday's practice.

"I've seen a lot of improvement in myself, and I hope the coaches see it, too," Weston said. "The spring is an opportunity to see who's going to be starting and a chance to move up on the depth chart, and I'm trying my best possible to do what I can do."

This and that

Senior defensive end and Cedar Shoals product Quentin Moses is one of more than 40 players on the preliminary watch list for the Rotary Lombardi Award, which goes to the top down lineman or defensive player who lines up within 5 yards from the football. ... Among visitors to practice Wednesday was former Bulldog linebacker Will Witherspoon, who played last season with the Carolina Panthers.